Your Turn: Cake shop case is about much more than same-sex marriage

When Charlie Craig and David Mullins walked into Jack Phillips' bakery, they were looking for a wedding cake. Five years later, all three are embroiled in a watershed Supreme Court case that will decide the limits of free speech.
USA TODAY

Your Turn: If Masterpiece Cakeshop loses its Supreme Court fight, governments will have the power to intrude into our conscience. That should frighten everyone.

Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, CO is at the center of a Supreme Court case that will be heard in early December. He refused to design a custom wedding cake for a gay couple based on his religious beliefs, claiming First Amendment freedom of expression.(Photo: Matthew Staver, for USA TODAY)

What Jack's conscience tells him

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Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, CO is at the center of a Supreme Court case that will be heard in early December. He refused to design a custom wedding cake for a gay couple based on his religious beliefs, claiming First Amendment freedom of expression.
Matthew Staver, for USA TODAY

Jack Phillips is surrounded by supporters as they offer a prayer for the owner of Masterpiece Cake after a rally on the campus of a Christian college Nov. 8, 2017, in Lakewood, Colo. The small rally was held to build support for Phillips, who is at the center of a case that will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in December.
David Zalubowski, AP

Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins near their home in Denver. The battle has taken a financial toll on Phillips and an emotional toll on Craig and Mullins, but neither side has any regrets. Phillips is fighting for the right to express himself through his confections. Craig and Mullins are fighting for the right to be treated equally despite their affections.
Matthew Staver, for USA TODAY

The battle has taken a financial toll on Phillips and an emotional toll on Craig and Mullins, but neither side has any regrets. Phillips is fighting for the right to express himself through his confections. Craig and Mullins are fighting for the right to be treated equally despite their affections.
Matthew Staver, for USA TODAY

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Jack is a cake artist in Colorado who designs amazing custom cake art. His faith calls him to love and serve all, and he does just that, striving to reflect God’s love to everyone that comes into his shop.

But even though Jack will serve everyone, he cannot create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in conflict with his faith. Showing love to others must not come at the expense of truth. For him to express through his art what he believes God disapproves would be a deep intrusion into his conscience — into his very identity as a man of faith.

He, like millions of believers from Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions, believes that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. His custom wedding cakes are unique works of edible art, temporary sculptures at wedding celebrations. They are markers for marriage, announcing the couple’s union as a marriage and an occasion for celebration.

So when Jack was asked to design a cake for a same-sex wedding, he knew that he must decline. He apologized to the couple and offered to sell them anything else in his shop or to design a cake for them for another occasion.

Should government dictate belief?

But they sued Jack. And the state of Colorado demanded this: If Jack creates wedding cakes that express any message, he must do the same on cakes celebrating same-sex marriages. Because he cannot do that in good conscience, he was required to stop designing wedding cakes altogether.

That forced him to give up the wedding art he loves, cost him 40 percent of his income, caused most of his employees to lose their jobs, and left his family business struggling to stay afloat.

Jack is now set to ascend the steps of our nation’s highest court. As he does, he carries the freedom of all artists – religious and non-religious – with him.

Will governments have the power to force a gay cake artist to design cakes that celebrate a religious event opposing same-sex marriage? Or a Jewish sculptor to craft a monument to German history? Or an atheist graphic designer to create websites promoting belief in God? Or the artists at Brush & Nib Studio in Phoenix to design custom artwork that celebrates weddings in conflict with their faith?

If Jack loses, governments will have the power to compel these sorts of intrusions into conscience. That should frighten all of us, no matter our beliefs about same-sex marriage.

Jim Campbell is senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom in Scottsdale and is part of the legal team representing Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop. Share your thoughts at media@adflegal.org; on Twitter, @AllianceDefends.